Azura

Origins & History
Azura was born in the isolated and remote village of the Akaari, an ancient and rumoured to be mythological community, predominately female, who made their home nestled deep in a valley of impassable mountains. The Akaari lived simple and peaceful lives which were interwoven with their belief and worship of the water goddess, Melusine, who they believed made her home in sacred mountain springs and channels known only to their people. She was believed to speak through the high priestess of the village which was Azura’s mother, Seraphina. The gift was prophesied to be passed down to one of her three daughters, their family line connected to the Goddess through ancestral blood.

Although much of their language and culture remains a mystery to the outside world, as the story goes, due to the ancient tribe’s loyalty and devotion, they were said to have been gifted by their Goddess the power of second sight, an affinity to heal the injured and harness the element of water, although in reality, only those within the royal line of priestesses possessed these gifts. It was these likely these rumours and the greed of men that caused the destruction and obliteration of this peaceful tribe.

The ancient and secret community had existed for hundreds of years without interaction from the outside world until the day Azura turned 16 years old. On that day, she woke to scent of smoke and blood. Her ears filled with screams of pain and fear. A group of unknown men, foreign men, had attacked in the early hours of the morning whilst the village slept, intent on discovering the secrets of Melusine and her followers. When Azura stepped outside into the rising sun, the village was bathed in an eerie glow of orange and red, and she struggled to adjust her eyes to the scene of horror and violence erupting in front of her. Her two younger sisters lay dead at her feet, mutilated and staring up at her with blank eyes.
Men in strange brightly coloured garments of materials she had never seen before were methodically setting each home alight and forcing the panicked occupants back inside at random to be burnt alive, beating at them savagely with weapons when they tried to escape. Men, women and children ran for their lives but were pursued and clubbed to death, raped or tortured right beside their fallen family members. Mothers screamed as infants were ripped from their arms and thrown carelessly into the dirt. And whilst their sacred idols and temples began to burn to the ground, in the centre of all of the chaos and violence, was a man who stood out as the leader of the group, shouting demands and issuing orders.

Azura watched in horror as his men dragged her mother by her striking red hair as she fought and threw her at their leader’s feet. She was easily identifiable as the High Priestess and someone of importance by the elaborate headdress adorned upon her head. Azura watched as the leader, with his dark unkempt hair and eyes concealed behind strange shades, forced Seraphina to look at him by gripping her by the chin before pulling the woman up by her hair. He indicated in rudimentary body language that she take he and his men to their most sacred spring but Seraphina and the others remained defiant and mute.

Whilst Azura tried to intervene and rescue her mother, she only succeeded in drawing attention to herself and the leader who would forever remember the young girl’s vivid sea green eyes as she barrelled her small fists into his midsection uselessly. It was at this moment Azura knew that everything was lost to her and she fled into the wild forest that bordered the village with her mother’s final words echoing in her ears.

“Run. Save yourself. Keep Melusina alive. You are the last..”

The words were cut off with a choked gurgle and Azura glanced over one tattooed shoulder as she ran, catching a brief glimpse of blood running down her mother’s dusty brown dress before she collapsed in a crumpled heap.

As news of the massacre spread to the rest of the civilised world, people continued to insist that the Akaari never existed to begin with as the alleged invaders were never identified nor had any of the secrets they may have learned been exposed. Those that do believe the myths are of the opinion that there were no survivors to the slaughter.

Azura spent the next few years surviving in the rough wilderness of the mountains of her former home, avoiding the detection of the murderers who still roamed and hunted for both the last Akaari and the secret location of their sacred sites before she finally left for civilisation and to learn about the world she had been kept hidden from. When it was safe to do so, she returned to her village to give her family and tribe members a traditional sea burial. Azura visits her the remnants of her home several times a year to perform sacred rituals and uphold the Akaari’s worship to their goddess.

Akaari CultureThere is no such thing as a male Akaari, although the women do produce male offspring occasionally. Women who are of age would travel once every three months to a neighbouring community of men for pre-arranged fertility festivals and celebrations, the unions created at this time are made out of necessity, and so the concept of love is foreign to their people. The only males permitted to live in the sacred land of Melusine are young infants and children awaiting the age where they will be moved on to other villages and elderly men as all former sons are allowed to return to their birth land to await death.

Akaari women are very spiritual and have a strong connection to the land and animals within it who are often drawn to them simply by song or comforting sounds. This deep connection often can produce surprising results including shared pain.

Personality
-Skilled at wildness survival, Azura is agile and graceful with quick reflexes, but can often appear awkward and clumsy when out of her natural element.
-Can be naive and childish at times as due to her isolated upbringing and peaceful nature she often lacks appropriate social skills.
-Often mistrustful and guarded especially around men.
-Can be quick to strong emotion, usually anger, due to the trauma and violence she has experienced.
-Outwardly perception that she is weak or easily manipulated however she has a keen intuition that she relies on to keep safe and others misguided in their assumptions of her.

My Appearance

Azure has long raven colored and often tangled hair that falls half way down her back with strips of white like snow caused by the shock she experienced at such a young age.

She is small in stature at about 5’3 and has very pale porcelain like skin which is marked with an array of elaborate tribal and cultural tattoos which she has had since a young age, like most Akaari girls. She sometimes wears a traditional row of piercings beneath her bottom lip and along her neck line.

She is most usually dressed in a dark blue satin hooded coat decorated with silver stars to conceal her identity should she be recognised. Beneath the hood, she is often dressed in a faded white singlet with torn edges cropped just above her hips, a long flowing skirt made up of iridescent swirls of purple, green and blue and dark boots woven from the hide of different animals.

She wears at all times a silver anklet with moon and star charms and a large golden locket with a sea green emerald set in the centre that was gifted to her by her village’s high priestess when she turned 10 years old. Hidden inside the pendant is a lock of her mother’s cobalt hair taken from her corpse before Azura gave her and the other villagers and elders a sea burial and a tiny vial of mountain water from a sacred Akaari spring.

Inventory

Azura carries with her at all times
-The Story of creation- A sacred text detailing the legend and origins of Melusine and her legacy.

My Secrets Are...

Intricate and sacred knowledge and secrets of the Akaari and the legend of Melusine
Rumoured to possess the power to heal and see into the future. Last of her kind.
Can call on the Goddess Melusine to harness control of the element of water.

Azura also harbours a secret that she has yet to fully process or accept though it weighs heavily on her mind. Could she have been the one that started a chain of events that eventually led to the genocide of her people?

I Believe...

in the legend of Melusine, the healing properties of water, nature and the natural order.